That was a great event on Wednesday and I am fired up to bring Tableau to my current department/company. Before my current role, I championed Tableau at Concur in Seattle and was successful after pitching and presenting it to the C-level execs there. Circumstances then brought me to SLC and with the move went my daily Tableau access. I have been supplementing with Public on the side but still itching for the full solution. I have made one presentation to the BI Director and Revenue Reporting Manager, my boss, but it has been more difficult to sell it here. I am looking for anyone who has successfully championed Tableau for their organization, especially if difficult at first. What did you try? What worked and what didn't? Any ideas are welcomed.

So glad you enjoyed the event yesterday! I've worked with a handful of champions to help sell Tableau to the higher ups - depending on the barriers you're working with and what the objections are, I can recommend resources or information that might help. You can reach me at 206-634-7056

Hey Eric, great questions. Not sure what dynamics you are up against but here are a few guidelines that have helped me in a few environments.

Leverage white papers that highlight Tableau's value proposition

Putting together a solid cost benefit analysis

Getting the decision makers on the phone with Tableau reps

At my current company I have had to start very small with one license and called it a supplementary tool to excel. I then showed analysts in different functional areas its capabilities and we purchased 10. We now have the sales management and executive itching to roll it out to the entire company.

Keying off what Adam talked about, if you can get it in the hands of a few people the product starts to speak for itself. Hopefully this is helpful. I would also be happy to jump on a call. 801.360.3350

Thanks for the insights Shane! I wanted to follow up and add some of the helpful content I have found for anyone else looking into Tableau. The first is a post by Dan Murray at InterWorks. Its short but offers a great analogy of how most companies are currently running BI contrasted with Tableau's solution.

This second reference is to the success story that Dan Murray recounted at the SLC event. The piece that helped most here was that Blastrac implemented Tableau Desktop alongside Tableau Reader. I have been trying to figure out the most cost efficient way to start small and build from as demand grows. Some of our current report users will need Server but most could use Reader which is a huge win for my case.